Hey all- So I'm UVMapping my wolf woman, and just to test the map, I use the texture from Guenevere (Cat Woman). Aside from some technical issues, what struck me was, isn't it weird you never (or almost never) see a breed of dog with stripes? I wonder why that is? Regards- Lemurtek

Irish Wolfhounds have them.

Attached Link: http://images.google.com/images?q=Tasmanian-Tiger&ie=ISO-8859-1&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search

not really a dog but looked like one

Easy.... Stripes = Camouflage. Most feline creatures stalk when they hunt, while Canines hunt in packs and don't really need stripes... but now I think of it... Don't Hyenas have stripes? Axe

A lot of Boxers almost have stripes - They're called "Brindle" coloration.

Yeah, but brindle isn't really stripes... it's more a tortoise-shell colouration. Some feral half-coyotes have stripish marks, and some African wild dogs have stripes. By and large, dogs do not tend to stripes, though they do tend to the sharp delineations in colouration that are typical of stripes-- they're just not striped. They're masked, saddled, and socked. Personally, I tend to think a dog's markings are more important socially than for any other purpose. This is why their markings are so dramatic in the areas to which dogs pay attention: the eyes, the brow, the legs (length of), the tail (dogs wag their tails to alert each other of their presence-- hence a light-coloured, feathery underside to a dark, sleek topcoated tail). Some hyenas do have stripes. Dogs are among the most morphologically adaptable of all species on the planet (put a toy pug and an Irish wolfhound side by side, and remember that there is no reason why this pair cannot produce viable offspring, if you want a forcible reminder) and they can and have adapted to, well, just about everything. Sorry, just a wolfdog's human here-- strange

Because people would point and laugh.

Don't Dingos have stripes? Or wait it's some other Australian dog. Extinct I think, and not really a dog 'cause it's a marsupial... ummm never mind. Jon

Thanks for the comments guys! There's probably some folk tale or something in this whole subject. Hmmm, wonder if the Poser comunity is ready for a striped Poser dog? :) Regards- Lemurtek

Attached Link: http://www.dogware.com/292butch.htm

oh now I found a link with a light brindle :) hm, brindle sure looks like stripes to me - depends on what kind of brindle it is. you have dark brindles that almost look black aka tortoiseshell like - but you have the fawn type with lighter black striping too. Its common in Great Danes (as in the picture) and I have seen this type of brindle in Whippets too.

Attached Link: http://www.dogware.com/284tiggerstormi3.htm

this link here shows you how brindle can be light or dark - the 'tortie' type of dark brindle is on this one too dogs also come in spots :) my favourite kind actually - other than great danes, australian cattle dogs and shetland sheepdogs can be spotted too. http://www.dogware.com/195germanpups3.htm

Attached Link: http://www.geocities.com/sbatteate/mar98index.htm

Horses have brindles too - this pic on the link is a really good one of a brindled horse. this is a tortie cat below, you will notice they are patched not striped - whereas the dogs and that horse definitely are striped, no two ways about it :) http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/persian-parti.html brindle in dogs is always defined as being black stripes on a fawn background (just like that horse in the pic oddly enough) Pick up a book on AKC standards and look for various entries like Boxers, Great Danes, Whippets, Mastiffs, etc, lots of information and photos with brindle dog colouring in such books :)... its not 'tiger' type striping but dogs with this colouring do have the intersecting stripe patterns down the ridge of their spines somewhat like tigers though (when not too darkly brindled) on the other hand I have seen some mixcoloured Great Danes with Harlequin-type brindle striped patches on a white background - talk about strange!! (definitely not a legal colouring for Danes but pretty) True spotting or patches in dogs is MUCH rarer than being brindled :)

OK, here we go... a lot of Cats have stripes. Remember the cat was a desert animal first, they why the instinctually use a litter box. Deserts and plains regions had tall grass and the stripes help hide them in the grass during a hunt. Most dogs are mottled. Remember the dog was a woodland animal mostly. stripes wre not the best camoflauge in that environment. Mottled was best in order to blend with the scattered light on the floor of the forest and the leaves in the background. These days we tend to forget this because they have been out of this environment for so long and have been modified from thier companionship to us. Overall it was just an adaptation to thier surroundings that gave them this appearance.

Hyenas are cat relatives, aren't they? Just look more doglike.

Yes, they're more closely related to cats than dogs. They aren't canids.